Articles | Volume 15, issue 8
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-3555-2021
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-3555-2021
Research article
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03 Aug 2021
Research article | Highlight paper |  | 03 Aug 2021

Recent degradation of interior Alaska permafrost mapped with ground surveys, geophysics, deep drilling, and repeat airborne lidar

Thomas A. Douglas, Christopher A. Hiemstra, John E. Anderson, Robyn A. Barbato, Kevin L. Bjella, Elias J. Deeb, Arthur B. Gelvin, Patricia E. Nelsen, Stephen D. Newman, Stephanie P. Saari, and Anna M. Wagner

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Cited articles

Bjella, K.: Dalton Highway 9 to 11 Mile Expedient Resistivity Permafrost Investigation, Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities Technical Report, FHWA-AK-RD-13-08, Fairbanks, Alaska, 2014. 
Bjella, K.: Imaging of Ground Ice with Surface Based Geophysics, ERDC/CRREL Technical Report TR-15-14, Hanover, USA, 2015. 
Bjella, K.: Improving Design Methodologies and Assessment Tools for Building on Permafrost in a Warming Climate, ERDC/CRREL Technical Report TR-20-13, Hanover, USA, 2020. 
Boike, J., Roth, K., and Overduin, P. P.: Thermal and hydrologic dynamics of the active layer at a continuous permafrost site (Taymyr Peninsula, Siberia), Water Resour. Res., 34, 355–363, 1998. 
Bray, M. T., French, H. M., and Shur, Y.: Further cryostratigraphic observations in the CRREL permafrost tunnel, Fox, Alaska, Permafrost Periglac. Process., 17, 233–243, 2006. 
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Short summary
Permafrost is actively degrading across high latitudes due to climate warming. We combined thousands of end-of-summer active layer measurements, permafrost temperatures, geophysical surveys, deep borehole drilling, and repeat airborne lidar to quantify permafrost warming and thawing at sites across central Alaska. We calculate the mass of permafrost soil carbon potentially exposed to thaw over the past 7 years (0.44 Pg) is similar to the yearly carbon dioxide emissions of Australia.
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